More than twelve years after the exposure of the right-wing extremist terrorist cell “National Socialist Underground” (NSU), investigators are pursuing new leads. According to the magazine “Spiegel”, the reason for this is statements made by NSU terrorist Beate Zschäpe to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). At five interrogation sessions from August to October 2023, Zschäpe, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, spoke in detail about her time in the underground and about her dead accomplices Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos. Among other things, she reported on a long-term relationship between Mundlos and a woman living in Switzerland – but she could only remember her first name.
While searching for Mundlos’ alleged girlfriend, investigators came across a right-wing extremist who was active in the Swiss neo-Nazi scene at the time. At the beginning of March, Swiss investigators searched her apartment in the canton of Zurich. In a witness interview, however, the 39-year-old denied having known Mundlos. The investigators have apparently not yet found any evidence that could refute this.
Zschäpe also made statements about the murder of police officer Michèle Kiesewetter in April 2007 in Heilbronn. According to her, the attack on Kiesewetter and her colleague Martin A. was solely intended to obtain reliable police weapons.
According to Zschäpe, Mundlos shot Martin A. while Böhnhardt fired at Kiesewetter. The young policewoman died, her colleague survived with serious injuries. Later, Zschäpe said, Böhnhardt told her that he had left the letters “NSU” on a wall at the crime scene. In fact, such writing was found on the wall in front of which Kiesewetter’s patrol car was parked. However, no one during the investigation at the time recognized its meaning.